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Spanish State

Communique on the adoption of the Catalan Referendum Law

Anticapitalistas (Spanish State)

Tuesday 12 September 2017, by Anticapitalistas

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The Catalan parliament has passed a law convening the first of October referendum. We consider this law to be legitimate and backed by the will of the majority of Catalan society which wishes to exercise their right to decide even if this involves disobeying the regime’s unjust and repressive legality.
A popular mandate for exercising the right of self-determination has been expressed both in the streets and the institutions on numerous occasions in Catalonia over recent years. The Spanish state, the 1978 regime and the government are trying to block and outlaw this popular mandate. The PP(People’s Party), the C’s (Cuidadanos) and the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers Party) have refused to negotiate a referendum along the lines that the British government did over Scotland or the Canadian one held over Quebec – nobody suggests they are in any way revolutionary governments. Given this impasse it is legitimate and necessary to disobey a legal framework which denies political rights. Civil and institutional disobedience is a legitimate and unavoidable weapon in the struggle to win social, political, economic and cultural rights. The history of popular, feminist or working class struggles have demonstrated this.

Furthermore we want to express our complete rejection of these repressive measures. Such an approach amounts to a serious weakening of democracy for all working people in the Spanish state. It is the same PP government, together with the PSOE, which is denying the right of the Catalan people to vote on the first of October, which is carrying out austerity policies harming the social gains and rights of all working people in the Spanish state. This very government has implemented all the dictates of the European Union, reducing democracy in the Spanish state to the bare minimum.

The question we have to ask is very clear: On the first of October do we want to see a Rajoy that is strengthened or weakened? A defeated or a triumphant Rajoy? What is at stake on the first of October is not just the legitimate right of the Catalan people to decide. The future of the 1978 regime is in play. If the PP and all the state apparatus is defeated it will open the way for a favourable change for working people throughout the state. If the PP win it will emerge strengthened and the reactionary bloc it leads will become even tougher.

Faced with threats and the probable prohibition imposed by the Constitutional Court, the organisation of resistance at the base, a refusal to accept the legal suspension and the most energetic fightback are fundamental. Consequently we reiterate our support for the first of October referendum and the necessity of left forces throughout the state to organise solidarity with the Catalan people. The first of October is a democratic challenge to a regime that has implacably opposed the majority of Catalans who are demanding the legitimate right to vote. This challenge can accelerate the break-up of the regime and help advance a more profound democratic process.

P.S.

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